Even as an avid reader who loves books and the beauty of fictional worlds, sometimes even I get bored and can’t concentrate on the book I’m trying to get through. That’s been my situation for the last few weeks, and the only reason I’ve managed to even read a few measly pages this past month is because of the playlists I’ve created to listen to as I read. Music and literature are both forms of art which work so beautifully together, especially if you choose music which links to some of the themes or emotions running though the book you’re reading. I’ve found some songs and books which go really well together, and thought I’d share them so more people can discover some new music and books!
1. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer trilogy by Michelle Hodkin – No One’s Here To Sleep by Naughty Boy Ft Bastille
When I first heard this song, the first thing I noticed was the haunting, almost sad tone to the lyrics and notes played, but even then this song is quietly powerful and captured me from the first beat. I feel this song links to the UOMD trilogy by Michelle Hodkin as both the trilogy and the song are underlined with desperation and a dumbfounding weight of emotion; the feeling of not being able to escape a fate bigger and badder than you could have ever imagined and realizing that it doesn’t matter how hard you try to hide your feelings or issues, that they’ll always find you in the end.
2. Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead – The Wire by Haim
If you haven’t read the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead yet (shame on you! Joking, but this series is one of my top few favorite series EVER and you all should go and read them right now!), you may want to dodge this recommendation as spoilers! I do not want to be the cause of such a crime as spoiling someone of a book! SPOILERS FROM HERE. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. I feel like this song can be heavily linked to the last book in the Vampire Academy series, Last Sacrifice, as I feel like this would be the song Rose would make Adrian listen to instead of her awful excuse of why she cheated on him with Dimitri. I may love Rose and Dimitri together with all my heart, but what she did was wrong and her explanation was not good at all. This song manages to convey all of Rose’s reasoning and emotions about the “I SLEPT WITH DIMITRI WHEN WE WERE STILL TOGETHER BUT I WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY FOR ME” section of the book, but it also puts across Roses resilience about how Adrian will find love again and be happy: “I just know I know I know I know that you’re going to be okay anyway”.
3. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare – Run This Town by Jay Z, Rihanna and Kanye West
I love to make fan-videos on youtube and I found the most perfect video using clips from the sadly failing City of Bones film with RTT in the background. Let me just say my fangirl heart soared as the two go perfectly together and ever since that moment I’ve always, and I mean always, related that song to the series. The strong and determined beat of the song and the lyrics (“Feeling it coming in the air, hear their screams from everywhere, I’m addicted to the thrill, of this dangerous love affair. Can’t be scared when it goes down, got a problem tell me now. Only thing what’s on my mind, who’s gonna run this town tonight?”) are both almost a direct translation from the books into song form, and it is obviously one of the most bad-ass songs I’ve ever listened too and never fails to get me pumped up, as if I was going into battle and could do back flips and stuff like that. Obviously I can do all those things now *coughs loudly* but that doesn’t mean I still don’t need awesome songs to help me!
4. Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas – Mercy by Hurts
Throne of Glass is one of the best YA fantasy sagas out there at the moment, and is packed with ALL of the feels. Mercy is such an emotive song, and links to Celaena’s character through the lyrics (lead me in chains, fill me with rage) and the conquering beat of the song sounds almost like a battle mantra. This song was yet again found through a fan video (a pretty amazing Teen Wolf one which you should ALL watch) and right from the moment I heard it I knew this song was for only the beautiful and bad-ass- meaning perfect for Celaena!
5. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter - Problem by Natalia Kills
For such an amazing trilogy, Gena Showalter’s White Rabbit Chronicles have hardly any hype surrounding them, which seems terribly unfair as this series is everything you could really want in a paranormal YA, and had me salivating for more as soon as I shut the last page. Ali Bell is a heroine born from grief and a burning vendetta, and learns that to be a bad-ass all you need to do is believe in the power you have inside of you, and never let anybody persuade you otherwise. Of course there is an extremely attractive male specimen who our Ali comes into contact with *sniggers*, and I feel the relationship between said specimen (his name is Cole) and Ali can be described with the lyrics of Natalia Kills’ song Problem. Ali is our good girl who is swayed to the darker side of life through a really bad thing which happens at the start of the book which I won’t explain as, well, spoilers, and Cole’s tempting purple eyes. Ali and Cole are a couple who are very, very hot together, but many others aren’t too sure of their relationship. They’re very problematic and sometimes down right rude to each other, but there’s definitely chemistry, and definitely some other emotions entwined in there.
